An application program may be used to perform operations on a document, such as a form, that has predefined types of content. An “active document” is a document that has been configured to facilitate the entry of content into such a document by a user of an application program. For example, an active document may be able to guide a user of a word processing program through the fields in a form that is being processed as a document by that word processing program and may prompt the user to enter certain types of information. The document may later by saved as a completed form by the application program (e.g., the word processing program).
A data object is an item of data that is associated with one or more functions (i.e., operations) that may be performed with that data. One type of data object is a “business object,” which would concern a commercial matter. Some examples of data objects may be an order, business partner, quotation, or invoice. In the case of the data object “order,” for example, a user may be able to command a computer system to perform functions with the order such as creating a new order, checking the order status, canceling the order, shipping a product that was ordered, displaying information for an order, displaying a list of data objects that are related to the order, etc.
Known active document systems do not allow a user of an application program to associate information from data objects in another application program or system with or into an active document. Accordingly, the present inventors perceive these and other needs in the art.